JP2000116514A - Rice cooking device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To boil non-glutinous rice savorily via two pairs of water absorption and steaming steps. SOLUTION: A primary steamer B and a secondary steamer D are each constituted of a vertically longer container 6, 43 into which grains of rice are input from the upper end so as to be steamed up in steam from a steam supply means 15, 50 before falling down to the lower end where they are taken out. The weight of upper layers of grains of rice limits free expansion of lower layers of grains of rice steamed more to avoid a deteriorated taste caused by excessive water absorption.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a rice cooking apparatus for obtaining cooked rice almost continuously by a combination of two water absorption steps and two steaming steps.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a means for obtaining cooked rice from raw rice, which is raw rice, instead of immersing rice grains in water and boiling them to perform water absorption swelling and gelatinization, two water absorption steps are performed. It is known that water absorption swelling and gelatinization are carried out by combining the steaming steps. According to this means, a large amount of cooked rice can be obtained almost continuously by treating rice grains in the order of primary water absorption, primary steaming, secondary water absorption, and secondary steaming. 63-37616.

As shown schematically in FIG. 2, the rice cooker includes a primary water absorbing device 81 for storing raw rice and water in an immersion tank 82 to perform primary water absorption, and a rice grain taken out from the bottom thereof. Is placed on a porous conveyor belt 84 and conveyed in one direction, and is steamed by steam blown up from a steam supply pipe 85, and rice grains delivered from the conveyor belt 84 are placed on a porous plate 87 while immersed in warm water. And a steam supply pipe 9 which transports the rice grains sent from the perforated plate 87 on the perforated conveyor belt 90 in one direction while transferring the rice grains in one direction by the endless scraper 88.
And a secondary steaming device 89 for steaming with the steam blown up from 1.

[0004]

In order to obtain cooked rice with excellent taste by the above rice cooker, it is necessary to adjust the times of water absorption and steaming twice for each of the origin, brand and quality of the raw rice. However, since the steps of primary steaming, secondary water absorption and secondary steaming are performed while moving the rice grains in one direction while being placed on the conveyor belts 84 and 90 and the perforated plate 87, the apparatus is set to have a long processing time. A large amount of rice grains stay in the apparatus, and a small amount of rice grains stay in the apparatus set for a short processing time. For this purpose, the amount of steam spouted for steaming and the temperature of water for water absorption must be controlled so that appropriate steaming and water absorption are performed within a set processing time, which is extremely troublesome.

[0005] In addition, the rice grains are conveyor belts 84, 9
0, since the treatment is performed in a state of being spread on the perforated plate 87 to form a relatively thin layer, it is possible to absorb water almost uniformly in a relatively short time in the water absorption step. In, the rice grains expand quite freely,
It is extremely difficult to provide a rice that has a lot of moisture and is inferior in appearance, stickiness, hardness, etc. and is satisfactory in taste.

Further, the primary steaming device 8 of the rice cooker described above.
3. Since the secondary water absorbing device 86 and the secondary steaming device 89 have a structure that is long in the horizontal direction, a large floor area is required for installation, and there is an inconvenient surface in which a usable place is considerably limited. .

The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems that the operation control is troublesome, that it is difficult to obtain cooked rice with a satisfactory taste, and that the installation place is limited, and that the cooked rice with a satisfactory taste can be easily prepared. An object of the present invention is to provide a rice cooker that can be obtained and installed in a place with a small floor area.

[0008]

As a means for solving the above-mentioned problems, the present invention relates to an apparatus for performing primary steaming and secondary steaming, each of which has a vertically long container having a rice grain inlet and an outlet at upper and lower ends, A steam supply means for feeding steam into the container was provided.

The rice grains put into the container from the upper end are steamed while gradually descending as the rice grains after the required steaming step are taken out from the lower end. Adjustment of the steaming time according to the place of origin, brand and quality of the raw rice can be performed by adjusting the time from input to extraction, that is, the amount of input and extraction, according to the thickness of the rice grain layer. In addition, the rice grains in the lower layer where steaming progresses are suppressed from freely expanding due to the weight of the thick rice grain layer which is fed upward and replenished, so that it is possible to obtain cooked rice that does not impair the taste. Further, since each container is vertically long, it can be installed in a small floor area.

[0010] As a means for solving the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a device for performing primary steaming and secondary steaming as described above, and a device for performing secondary water absorption with a container having a closed structure. The container is provided with a feeding means and a feeding means for feeding and sending the rice grains while maintaining the container in a sealed state, and a hot water supply means for supplying hot water to the container, so that the rice grains absorb water in a pressurized state.

[0011] By making the secondary water absorption using hot water under pressure, the rice grains absorb water while suppressing expansion, and together with the fact that free expansion is suppressed in the steaming process before and after that, the taste is improved. Can be improved.

[0012]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 1. In the drawing, A is a primary water absorbing device, B is a primary steaming device, C is a secondary water absorbing device, and D is a secondary steaming device. Is shown.

The primary water absorbing device A has a lower portion of a cylindrical tank 1 formed in a hopper 2 and an opening / closing member 4 formed of a slide type plate provided at a lower end of an outlet 3. Of water is poured from above, and the raw rice is immersed in water for a predetermined time, generally 1 to 2 hours, to absorb water.

After the primary water absorption, the raw rice is dropped and delivered together with the water by sliding the opening / closing member 4 to open the delivery port 3, and is placed on a belt conveyor 5 using a perforated belt to drain the primary rice. It is sent to the steaming device B.

There are a single tank 1 and a plurality of tanks 1 of the primary water absorbing device A. When one tank 1 is used,
The operation of charging and replenishing the same amount of raw rice and water as the supply amount is repeated from above, and it is assumed that a substantially constant amount of raw rice and water are always stored, and the rice is sequentially moved downward as water is absorbed. Those that have completed the predetermined water absorption are sent out one by one.
When a plurality of tanks 1 are provided, the primary steaming device B is alternately and sequentially turned from each tank 1 while performing the above-mentioned sending and charging and replenishment.
To send to.

The primary steaming apparatus B is provided with a sliding porous opening / closing plate 10 traversing the upper end of a vertically cylindrical container 6 serving as a rice grain inlet 7 with the upper end open, and the upper part thereof being a lower steaming chamber. 11, the lower part is a primary steaming chamber 12, and a steam supply means 15 is attached to the primary steaming chamber 12;
An opening / closing member 13 made of a sliding plate is provided at an outlet 9 at a lower end of a hopper 8 formed at a lower portion of the hopper 8, and a loosening machine 14 is provided in the hopper 8 with a rod protruding radially around a rotation axis. It is.

The steam supply means 15 includes a number of internal nozzles 17 provided on an upper conical cylindrical body 16 provided on the central axis of the container 6 and a number of side nozzles provided on the peripheral wall of the container 6 at appropriate intervals in the circumferential direction. 18, an annular steam pipe 19 surrounding the vessel 6, and branch pipes 20, 21 for distributing steam from the steam pipe 19 to the cylinder 16 and the nozzles 18 on each side. Are provided at the bottom and the center of the container 6. The steam pipe 19 is connected to a steam generator (not shown).

The rice grain discharging end of the belt conveyor 5 is located above the charging port 7, and the rice grains that have been drained after the primary water absorption are placed on the opening / closing plate 10 and stored in the lower steaming chamber 11, where the rice grains are drained. It is steamed down by steam rising through 10 holes. This primary steaming chamber 11 eliminates the concern that rice grains to which water at normal temperature has adhered are directly thrown into the rice grain layer during the steaming process to temporarily lower the temperature, thereby impairing the steamed state, It also has the advantage of shortening the steaming time in the primary steaming chamber 12, but it can be omitted.

In the primary steaming chamber 12, rice grains are formed in a thick layer up to a portion higher than the central portion, and are subjected to primary steaming by steam sent from the central portion and the peripheral wall portion by two sets of steam supply means 15. You. The rice grains after the primary steaming are dropped and sent out by sliding the opening / closing member 13 to open the take-out opening 9, and at this time, the rice grains are loosened by the drive rotation of the unraveling machine 14 and sent out without stagnation. can do.

When the rice grains after the primary steaming are taken out from the lower end, the opening / closing plate 10 is slid to put the rice grains in the lower steaming chamber 11 into the primary steaming chamber 12 and replenished. Introduce new rice grains from A. Therefore, by setting the extraction amount and the input amount to be substantially equal to each other, a substantially constant amount of rice grains is always contained in the primary steaming chamber 12, and is steamed while sequentially moving downward.

By adjusting the amount and time interval of one input and extraction, the time until the input rice grains are extracted, that is, the steaming time, is adjusted. In addition, the primary steaming time can be optimized according to the quality. This time is generally between 5 and 15 minutes. In addition, the rice grains that are going to expand greatly due to the progress of steaming are moving downward and receive the weight of the thick rice grain layer above the rice grains. By this pressure, free expansion of the rice grains is suppressed, and the disadvantage of absorbing water more than necessary and impairing the taste is avoided. The thickness of the rice grain layer is generally 2-3 m.

It should be noted that the operation of putting rice grains in a smaller amount than the amount taken out at one time in the lower steaming chamber 11, short-steaming the rice grains for a short time, and then putting the rice grains into the first steaming chamber 12 is repeated, so that the primary steaming chamber 12 is almost constant. A quantity of rice grains may be accommodated.

After the primary steaming, the rice grains taken out from the outlet 9 are sent to a hopper 25 by a screw conveyor 22, mixed with a large amount of water, sent to a high place by a pump 26 and a transport pipe 27, and are fed to a porous belt. It is discharged onto the used belt conveyor 28 and sent to the secondary water absorbing device C while draining. The water separated by the belt conveyor 28 is collected by the recovery pipe 2
9 returns to the hopper 25 for circulating use.

The secondary water absorbing device C has inlets 32,
An elongated cylindrical container 31 having an outlet 34, and an inlet 3
2 and a feeding means 33 and a sending means 35, each of which is a rotary valve provided at a sending port 34, and a hot water supply means 36 including a hot water pipe 37 connected to the container 31. The rice grain discharge end of the belt conveyor 28 is located at the bottom.

A rotary valve is widely known as a device for transporting a substance in a state where the inlet side and the outlet side are always shut off, and is suitable as a means for feeding and discharging rice grains while maintaining the container 31 in a sealed state. It is.

The hot water supply means 36 supplies water sent from a pump 39 by an accumulator 38 with a heater to 60 ° C.
Above, preferably 0.1 to 0.3 at a temperature of 80 to 90 ° C.
The hot water is pressurized to a pressure of kg / cm ² , and the container 31 communicated with the accumulator 38 and the hot water pipe 37 is filled and filled with the hot water.

After the primary steaming, the rice grains discharged into the inlet 32 are fed into the container 31 by the feeding means 33, and are absorbed by the water for a predetermined time and then sent out by the sending means 35.
The container 31 contains rice grains in a layer having a certain thickness, and the water absorption time is arbitrarily set by adjusting the amount and time interval of a single infeed and outflow. 5 to 10 minutes.

As described above, when high-temperature hot water is pressurized and absorbed into rice grains, the rice grains absorb water sufficiently to the core in a short time, and free swelling is suppressed, so that unnecessary water is not absorbed. It can contribute to the improvement of taste.

The rice grains delivered from the delivery port 34 are placed on a belt conveyor 41 using a perforated belt, and the delivery means 3
The hot water sent together by 5 is drained and sent to the secondary steaming device D.

The secondary steaming device D is provided with a steam supply means 50 as a secondary steaming chamber 49 with the entire interior of a vertically cylindrical container 43 having an upper end opened and serving as a rice grain input port 44, and a lower part of the container 43. An opening / closing member 47 made of a sliding plate is provided at an outlet 46 at the lower end of a hopper 45 formed in
Further, the same loosening machine 48 as described above is built in the hopper 45.

The steam supply means 50 includes a number of internal nozzles 52 provided on an upper conical cylindrical body 51 provided on the center axis of the container 43 and a number of side nozzles provided on the peripheral wall of the container 43 at appropriate intervals in the circumferential direction. 53 and an annular steam pipe 54 surrounding the container 43
And branch pipes 55 and 56 for distributing steam from the steam pipe 54 to the cylindrical body 51 and the respective side injection ports 53. A set of these is installed at the bottom and the center of the container 43. I have. The steam pipe 54 is connected to a steam generator (not shown).

That is, the secondary steaming device D has the same structure as that of the primary steaming device B except that the lower steaming chamber 11 is omitted.
The rice grains fed into the secondary steaming chamber 49 from the belt conveyor 41 whose discharge end is located above the rice feed 4 are formed into two sets of steam supply means 5 in a state where a thick layer is formed up to a portion above the central portion.
With 0, secondary steaming is performed by the steam fed from the central portion and the peripheral wall portion. The rice grain after the secondary steaming is cooked cooked rice, which is slid apart from each other by sliding the opening / closing member 47 to open the outlet 46 and rotating the unwinding machine 48, and sent out without stagnation. , And sent to a process such as inspection and weighing by a belt conveyor 58.

Also in this secondary steaming, by making the amount to be taken out and the amount to be charged substantially equal to each other, the secondary steaming chamber 4
The primary steaming device, in which a substantially constant amount of rice grains are always stored in the steamer 9 and steamed while moving downward sequentially, can be easily adjusted to an optimum steaming time and can be steamed without impairing the taste. Same as B. The secondary steaming time is shorter than the primary steaming time, generally between 5 and 10 minutes. In addition, the thickness of the rice grain layer is about 2 to 3 m, which is about the same as the primary steaming.
It is preferable that

In the above description, the rice grains are transferred to each of the devices B, C, D
In this case, the processing is performed while repeating the movement and the stop by intermittently sending a certain amount at a time, but the processing may be performed while moving the small amount continuously at a low speed. In this case, two steaming devices are used. The outlets 9, 46 for B and D are left open.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, in order to install the two steaming devices B and D on the same floor, the rice grains are moved to a high place during the processing using the pump 26 and the transport pipe 27. It was transported. However, for example, the primary steaming device B can be installed on the floor of the second floor and the secondary steaming device D can be installed on the floor of the first floor. In this case, the outlet 9 of the primary steaming device B and the secondary water absorbing device C Inlet 32, outlet 3 of secondary water absorption device C
4 and the inlet 44 of the secondary steaming device D are connected via a conveyor, respectively, or directly connected without passing through a conveyor. In this case, since high-temperature rice grains are fed into the secondary water absorbing device C, the upper portion of the container 31 is filled with high-temperature steam, and the pressurized state is maintained by the steam pressure.
No accumulator 38 is required.

Further, the steam supply means 15 and 50 of the two steaming devices B and D perform the optimal steaming process in accordance with the ratio between the diameter and height of the primary steaming chamber 12 and the secondary steaming chamber 49 and the capacity. Needless to say, the design is appropriately changed.

[0037]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The results of a comparison test conducted by cooking rice using the apparatus of the present invention and the conventional apparatus shown in FIG. 2 will be described below. The raw rice used had the same production area, brand, harvest time, and storage condition. The primary water absorption temperature is normal temperature, and the primary steaming and the secondary steaming are performed at a temperature of 100 ° C. with a pressure of 0.2 kg / cm 2.
^2. Injected into the rice grain layer. Other conditions are as shown in Table 1.

[0038]

[Table 1]

Raw rice and rice grains 5 at the end of each step
Table 2 shows the results of measuring the total length L, the maximum width W, and the maximum thickness H of each 0 grain, and the results of the taste evaluation of cooked cooked rice. The average size of the rice grains was indicated by mm, and the taste evaluation was indicated by the average value of eight persons evaluated in five steps.

[0040]

[Table 2]

[0041]

As described above, by making each of the two steaming devices vertically long, and in addition to these, making the secondary water absorption under pressure, the rice grains freely expand and absorb moisture excessively. Has a plump, but firm appearance and a good gloss,
Moreover, it is possible to easily and almost continuously provide cooked rice that is satisfactory in terms of taste, stickiness, hardness, aroma, and the like.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a layout sectional view showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a layout sectional view showing a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

A primary water absorbing device, B primary steaming device, C secondary water absorbing device, D secondary steaming device, 6,43 containers,
7,44 inlet, 9,46 outlet, 10 opening and closing plate, 11 lower steaming chamber, 15,50 steam supply means,
31 container, 33 feeding means, 35 sending means,
36 hot water supply means,

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page F term (reference) 4B054 AA02 AA17 AB01 AC02 BA02 BB07 BB12 CA01 CA04 CA15 CC02 CC05 CD05 CG01 CG09

Claims (3)

[Claims] Claims: 1. Primary water absorption of rice grains, primary steaming, secondary water absorption,
In a rice cooker that processes rice in the order of secondary steaming to make rice, the device for performing the primary steaming and the secondary steaming is a vertically long container having an inlet and an outlet for rice grains at an upper end and a lower end, and inside the container. A rice cooker comprising steam supply means for feeding steam. 2. Rice grains are subjected to primary water absorption, primary steaming, secondary water absorption,
In a rice cooker that processes rice in the order of secondary steaming to make rice, the device for performing the primary steaming and the secondary steaming is a vertically long container having an inlet and an outlet for rice grains at an upper end and a lower end, and inside the container. A device for performing secondary water absorption, wherein the device for performing secondary water absorption includes a container having a sealed structure, and a feeding unit that performs feeding and feeding of rice grains while maintaining the container in a sealed state, and A rice cooker comprising a sending means and a hot water supply means for supplying hot water to the container, wherein rice grains absorb water in a pressurized state. 3. The rice cooker according to claim 1, wherein a lower steaming chamber partitioned from a lower portion by a porous opening / closing plate is provided at an upper end portion of the container of the primary steaming device.